Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza has warned that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) draft on Sports Broadcasting Services amendment regulations could destroy local football.
The PSL bigwigs including Kaizer Motaung made presentations to Icasa in Centurion on Wednesday stating that the future of PSL, National First Division and in the reserve league will face uncertain future because of the proposed amendments.
The Icasa amendment regulations are meant to make sport more accessible to the public. The pay channel has exclusive rights to the PSL, Rugby, Cricket and other sporting codes
PSL is regarded as one of the richest leagues on the continent. Most of the players in the PSL even earn as much if not more than their counterparts abroad.
The league has always attracted many foreign players on the continent. Khoza says the amendments will threaten the livelihood of players.
Khoza also says this will also cripple the club owners who have sacrificed their lives to make the league one of the best in the world. He says football is struggling to attract corporate sponsorships.
The pay channel has got rights to the PSL matches with the public broadcaster getting rights from the pay channel to broadcast certain matches.
The pay has the first option to which matches they will flight, although some matches are shared such as the derbies.
Khoza says that the impact of the draft amendments does not consider the impact on the league and its constituent components.
The league gives monthly grants to all the 16 teams. Khoza says this has made all the teams competitive.
Almost all the top federations have been against the amendment regulations, and all of them will make presentations to argue that exclusivity generates income and is also accepted globally. – Report by Vincent Sitsula
.. @OfficialPSL against the draft amendment regulations as they are currently – “The amendment will have a severe adverse impact on the PSL and therefore the sport of football in South Africa, while also not increasing (and in fact reducing) access in the public interest” pic.twitter.com/CmG2wRouuT
— ICASA (@ICASA_org) May 29, 2019
